The Jewel of Seven Stars

A governess in a remote country house becomes convinced that two ghosts want the children in her care. Henry James never tells you if they are real, which is exactly why this novella still unsettles readers.

Henry James

A curse laid by a man hanged for witchcraft haunts the Pyncheon family and their gloomy mansion for two centuries. Hawthorne's classic shows how guilt and old sins can poison a house.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

An American family buys a haunted English castle and refuses to be scared, leaving its centuries-old ghost humiliated. Wilde's funny and surprisingly tender take on the haunted house story, with the original illustrations.

Oscar Wilde

Strange accidents, a box no one may use and a voice from the walls terrify the Paris Opera. Leroux's novel follows the mysterious Opera Ghost and his obsession with a young singer.

Gaston Leroux

A shape-shifting creature from Egypt stalks a rising politician through London, told by four narrators who each see a piece of the horror. In 1897 it outsold Dracula, and it is just as gripping today.

Richard Marsh